


The Decisions We Made

by spikefallsteve (hypersugarroxy)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Genocide Route, POV Multiple, gender-neutral child, more characters as we go along - Freeform, spoilers for most routes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-18 19:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5941240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypersugarroxy/pseuds/spikefallsteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some avoid, some confront head-on. Some fight fire with fire, some want to use a gentler approach. When everything starts taking turns for the worst, they can't help but wonder if they did the right thing. Or if it would've mattered anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heartache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All she'd done was step out for a few minutes. She left a child and came back to a machine.

She’d left for ten minutes.

All she’d done was step out for groceries. That was all. She thought she could leave the child alone for a few minutes. She trusted everything would be fine. She’d left children down in the corridors alone several times. They could take care of themselves. She’d never had to worry about any of them.

It became apparent very quickly that _the child_ wasn’t who she had to worry about.

They looked around her house as though they’d been there before. Touching everything with a hint of familiarity. Then crawled right into bed without dinner. Toriel left a slice of pie by their bedside before making another round.

Their behavior in the house was strange, but that was nothing to their behavior when she wasn’t around.

She’d witnessed the child kill a froggit. In a sense she understood and could forgive them that: they popped out of nowhere and could easily have startled and frightened them. The child’s surroundings were new to them, and humans are much sturdier than even Toriel herself, let alone a poor froggit; there was no way they could’ve realized their own strength.

Several before them had killed a creature in the Ruins. Each seemed extremely apologetic. Two of them cried. This one sort of looked up at Toriel with a blank expression, almost as if to say “That happened”.

She made her way through the corridors. The spiders at their bake sale were gone. The hallways were devoid of life. The mouse still hadn’t come out for the cheese. The line of froggits was gone, even the one in the wall. Toriel felt unease crawl up her back.

She crossed a threshold.

Another pile of dust sat right in the archway.

Every subsequent corridor had more and more piles. Some scattered on the walls. Some smeared along the cobblestone. Some with child-sized footprints through them.

“They couldn’t have.”

She said it aloud, as if hearing it would convince her. The child was just that: a child. No older than ten years, if she remembered how they grew correctly. Her resolve grew weaker as she went on, stepping softly as she could, afraid of whatever did this being right behind her.

~~~

Some of the flowers were smashed.

They couldn’t have helped where they fell, and honestly it was a good thing they fell on the small patch. Toriel reached down and patted a few gently. She smiled faintly at them. Seven children had fallen on this patch. Seemed like her little one was still watching out for their people after all.

She wondered vaguely if they were doing the right thing. Wondered the same thing about herself.

None of the others were nearly so violent. A pile here or there when an overzealous froggit came to see the commotion. Being "grossed out" by a moldsmal. But nothing like this. The Ruins went empty. Where they were leaving from, Toriel had no idea, though these creatures were much smaller than she was.

Of course, she still didn't  _know_ for sure if the child was responsible. Anything could've caused that.

Infighting. Which had never happened before.

A plague? No...they would've fallen down first, wouldn't they?

Maybe a...

Maybe she was trying too hard to convince herself of their innocence. She wanted to believe in it so badly. But the dust piles behind her spoke for themselves.

She didn’t want to go back through there. Funerals could wait just a little longer. What was important at the present was what to do with the child.

That she’d left alone for hours.

~~~

The first thing she did in the house was check on the child. Still asleep, pie untouched, They hadn’t moved that Toriel could tell, and she let herself breathe for a second.

Almost as soon as she heard the door latch, she heard small scuffling from within the child’s room. She backed away from the door and retreated to the sitting room, picked out a book and started reading, jamming her glasses on just as the child entered the room theirself.

“Hello, my child,” she said, brightly as she could muster. “Did you sleep well?” The small human didn’t answer, but stared at her as though they didn’t see her at all. “There’s…” Toriel continued, trailing off as the child walked past her and into the kitchen. She heard them vaguely muttering to theirself, but couldn’t make out hardly a word. She kept herself in her book as best she could, even as she heard them rustling in her trash can and rummaging through her refrigerator and cabinets.

They reemerged less than ten minutes later, looking rather cross. They knelt on the floor at Toriel’s feet and stared at her.

“Is there something you needed?”

They asked her when they could leave. Toriel’s stream ran cold.

“To go home?” she rephrased. “I...I think you misunderstand, young one. This _is_ your home now.”

This wasn’t a falsity: even if Toriel wasn’t afraid to let the child out of her sight again, she couldn’t return the child to the surface. Best she could do was what she did by the rest of her children: keep them safe, happy and loved. The child didn’t look satisfied with this answer.

“Would you like to hear a snail fact?” Toriel asked them, holding up her book. The child stood and repeated their question. Actually, it was more of a statement this time.

“I…” Toriel started, unease growing in her face. “I have to do something. You wait here, my child.”

She made the long walk through her basement almost nightly. She came out of there to do her shopping in a small town. She visited the little snail farm. She exchanged jokes through there with a nice young monster. This door was her most direct route to the outside world.

The child would figure that out soon enough. She still wasn’t quite sure who she was defending by destroying it, but in her soul she felt it was the best decision. The only immediate way.

She also didn’t exactly expect the child to stay put upstairs like she told them to.

~~~

“You want to leave? Then prove to me you won’t die!”

She took the first move and performed a check on their stats. Her heart skipped several beats.

How does a child get to level 5 when they were at 1 when they met?

A level 5 fight against her just wasn’t fair, and she still didn’t want to hurt them. She’d show them her strength, just a small taste of it, to show them what they were up against outside. People were out there actively hunting them down. An entire guard. Even the regular folk who just wanted to get out, let their children be free. And only one friendly soul out there to her knowledge...She couldn’t let them out.

On the other hand, the look on their face was not a pleasant one, and Toriel remembered it had been a very, very long time since she’d challenged a human. Level 5 to her and level 5 to them might be something wildly different. By letting them out, she might be unleashing a terror unto the entire underground.

The child took their turn, raising a small plastic knife that Toriel was certain they hadn’t fallen with, as she’d seen it before.

They drew their arm back and Toriel braced herself for the small blow.

~~~

“You really hate me that much?”

The “small blow” was much stronger than she anticipated. She sank to her knees as her chest started falling to dust under her tunic. She looked up at the child, who looked back with a deranged smile, clearly proud of theirself.

“I see...now I realize who I was protecting by keeping you here.” She was certain now, and as much as she didn’t want her dying thought to be how she’s been so naive about the small child in front of her, she had to confront her mistakes.

“Not you. But them.”

She laughed weakly, mostly to try to calm herself as her throat fell over the gaping chasm where her soul used to be shielded.

As her vision faded and she felt her soul crack, she swore she heard the tiniest of giggles in front of her.


	2. Duty Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He had a duty to his king. To his town. To the child before him.

He expected his puzzles to completely bamboozle any human who came through. He even saw the extremely slim possibility of a human possibly _not_ being outwitted by the Great Papyrus and his clever puzzles.

What he didn’t expect at all was the human who came to the underground to completely blow them off, cut him off when he was explaining the rules, and sort of shamble right through past them, emitting a very ominous aura. The gestures shook his kneecaps, and even his brother looked slightly unsettled by the presence of the short human.

In fact, it took Papyrus an embarrassingly long time to even realize that the...thing...before him was human at all! Not that he’d ever seen a human himself, but the way the thing was behaving, it was almost as if it weren’t human!

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND. THESE PUZZLES WERE SPECIFICALLY ENGINEERED TO CAUSE CONFUSION AND BEFUDDLEMENT! WHY WEREN’T THEY CONFUSED AND BEFUDDLED?”

Defeated was not a good feeling for Papyrus. He’d spent a lot of time on those traps and puzzles, after all, and to have them blown off without even a shot given to them?

Sans gave him an understanding look. “i wouldn’t worry about it. maybe they just don’t like puzzles?”

“EVERYBODY LIKES PUZZLES!”

“that’s not true, you said yourself undyne hates puzzles.”

“YES BUT SHE LIKES JAPES SO THAT MAKES UP FOR IT.”

“hey, don’t let this puzzle you too hard, ok? kid there...kid looks like they’re having a...a day. maybe you just caught them at a bad time. i’m gonna go check some stuff around my station, k?”

Sans slapped Papyrus’s arm lightly before walking off.

“HOW ODD. GOING TO DO WHAT HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE DOING FOR ONCE?” Papyrus scratched his skull. “WONDER WHAT’S BOTHERING HIM NOW.”

~~~

Snowdin Forest was stiller than Papyrus could ever recall. With more snow poffs than he remembered, too. Sort of greyed, bad-smelling snow poffs. He made a mental note to bring up pollution at the next town hall.

He made a point to stop by the Greater Dog’s post. Not much for conversation, that one, but a friendly fellow; always had a smile and tail wag for passersby. Not today, though. Which was good in a way as Papyrus discovered, rummaging around his pocket, he was out of meatballs. He’d just have to make more during his next lesson.

The Dogi weren’t at their post, either. “PATROLLING, MAYBE?” Papyrus thought aloud as he passed their empty stations. Perfectly logical explanation: neither went anywhere without the other, and they surely couldn’t keep the forest and town safe by being at their booths all day.

Empty stations didn’t truly bother Papyrus until he reached Doggo’s. “OK NOW THAT MAKES NO SENSE. THERE’S ALWAYS ONE MANNED STATION! HOW IRRESPONSIBLE.”

Then something struck him. “OH WAIT, WHAT’S THE TIME? THEY’RE PROBABLY ALL OUT ON BREAK AT THE BAR! THERE WE GO! THEY’LL BE BACK SHORTLY, THEN. I’LL JUST KEEP THEIR WATCH UNTIL THEY GET BACK.”

Ever vigilant, Papyrus kept his sockets completely peeled for trouble. Even the silly trouble, like telling off rowdy teens for laughing too loudly or carving into trees. But none was to be found. Just rows of tracks and more piles of the odd greyish snow, inexplicably blowing around and spreading their smell. It made Papyrus uneasy. He gripped at his scarf-cape and kept going, knowing he’d reach a dead end at the Ruins.

~~~

The door was open.

Lousy kids, making trouble! Papyrus made a note about it; he’d call Undyne when he was back in town. She got a bit testy when he brought up petty disturbances, but surely this was anything but petty!

He poked his head in the door. There was a long, dark hallway past a small grassy area.

“HELLO?” he called. “WHO’S MAKING TROUBLE IN HERE?”

“I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW YOU’RE TRESPASSING!” He went on as he entered. He felt his legs shake with each step. How unbecoming a future royal guardsman! Though, what did he always tell himself? Bravery wasn’t an absence of fear, just pressing forward in spite of it! Of course, the Great Papyrus had never known fear before, but that must be how to deal with it.

The same smell from the off-color snow poffs filled the air as he followed it down, though there should be no reason the snow should blow in this far, and indeed, there was none to be seen. He took out his phone and used it to illuminate his path. Starting fainter and getting stronger as he approached a wall (which he nearly walked face-first into) were off-white, smallish footprints, heading out of the Ruins.

Another door at the end sealed off the rest of the ruins. Papyrus raised a shaking, gloved hand and knocked on it. There was no reply. He wrenched it open, scattering some of the snow-dust prints and unleashing a thick wave of the putrid odor. Papyrus gagged and backed away from the door.

It couldn’t possibly be snow. Papyrus braced himself against the stench and peered into the next hallway, phone aloft. A lone poff with two small footprints in it sat just inside.

~~~

“SHE MUST BE BUSY,” Papyrus mused to himself, sitting at his brother’s unmanned post and staring at his phone. The six most recent calls in his history were all to the same number within the past five minutes. He pressed “dial” again; maybe the seventh time’s the charm?

No: dumped to Undyne’s voicemail again. He hung up, as he’d already left five messages, all saying mostly the same thing: it’s Papyrus, there’s a problem in Snowdin Forest, you know my number, call me back. Unless she wasn’t getting them?

As soon as he rested the phone on his knees it rang. He picked it up with such vigor he dropped it in the snow right as he answered it.

“YES, THIS IS PAPYRUS.”

“I know. I have issues to attend to and didn’t get your messages: summarize in fifteen seconds.”

“THE FOREST IS UNUSUALLY STILL, THERE’S ODD POWDER EVERYWHERE. AND THE RUINS HAVE BEEN...VANDALIZED? BEST WAY TO PUT IT. AND -”

"Powder?"

"YES."

"Here's the deal: Alphys has cameras set up in Snowdin. The ins-and-outs and whys and wheres are not important. But she says something came through earlier today. Came out of the Ruins. What do you know about this?"

"WAS IT WEARING A STRIPED SHIRT AND A RIBBON IN THEIR HAIR?"

"I recall her saying striped shirt."

"WELL THEN, YES I DO. WE FOUND A HUMAN HERE EARLIER!"

The phone went silent for a moment.

"And you were gonna tell me this  _when?_ "

"ER...WHEN I... CAUGHT THEM."

More silence.

"YOU DON'T THINK THE HUMAN DID SOMETHING, DO YOU?"

"What else is new there, Papyrus?"

"NOT MUCH, WHY?"

"Odd powder, Unusually still, the Dogs are M.I.A."

"THE DOGS?"

"None of this strikes you as weird?"

"OF COURSE IT DOES!"

The third bout of silence was all the answer Papyrus needed.

"THE DOGS ARE...?"

“Where are you?” Undyne finally asked.

“NEAR THE RUINS.”

“Where are the Dogs?”

“PROBABLY AT THE LOCAL DIVE BAR, THEY USUALLY ARE AROUND THIS TIME!”

“Get them. None of them are picking up phones and I need soldiers here.”

“IF YOU NEED SOLDIERS -!”

“Your orders are to keep watch on Snowdin area! Get the dogs, pass my message. Call me back if there’s a problem.”

“ROGER, CAPTAIN! YOU CAN COUNT ON ME!” He hung up his phone and took off at a sprint toward town.

~~~

There was a dark presence hanging over little Snowdin Town. The tree in the center of the village was left alone, and everyone was shut in their houses instead of socializing with neighbors outside. It didn’t sit right with Papyrus as he reluctantly made his way to Grillby’s bar. He hated the greasy spoon and all its associated aromae, but even Papyrus had to admit it was preferable to whatever was hanging around in the forest.

The bar was mostly empty as well. A quick scan of the small room should’ve been enough to spot the large group of guard dogs. He tried Grillby the barkeep: if anyone would know who’d been in that day (besides _someone who spends a little too much time there_ ), it’d be the owner.

“The flame says nada,” a patron at the counter told Papyrus.

“NOT AT ALL TODAY?”

“Did I stutter, buddy? He’s seen nothin’, I’ve seen nothin’. Figured it’s a busy day or something: you check their workplaces?”

“DO YOU THINK I’D BE IN HERE IF I HADN’T?” Papyrus took out his phone.

“Just offering suggestions,” the bar-goer shrugged as Papyrus dialed.

One ring in: she’d been expecting him.

“News, pronto!”

“HAVE YOU REACHED THE DOGS AT ALL?”

“I meant YOUR news!” Undyne screamed into the receiver.

“THEY’RE NOT AT THE BAR, I HAVE NO IDEA, IF YOU CAN’T GET A HOLD OF THEM -”

“Papyrus, listen to me. Are you listening?”

“AYE, CAPTAIN!”

“Get everyone out of town. Put up some kind of blockade, and evacuate the town. Do you know where the rain statue is in Waterfall?”

“YES, I -”

“I want to meet you there in one hour. I’m getting my seconds in command to organize troops in Hotland, send a few down to us here.”

“IS THIS A PROMOTION?”

“Am I clear?”

Papyrus opened his mouth to say, yes, of course! But stopped short. He’d had a thought.

“WHAT IF I STAY HERE AND STOP THEM?”

“Your orders are to evacuate the town and meet me in Waterfall. _Are they clear_?”

“YES BUT IF I CAN STOP THEM HERE -”

“ARE MY ORDERS CLEAR?” Undyne yelled. Papyrus gave Grillby, who’d become mildly interested in the conversation, a worried glance.

“C-CRYSTAL, CAPTAIN.”

“Good. One hour.”

~~~

The town was eerie when empty. Children no longer played in the street, neighbors weren’t chatting with each other. Quiet. Still. Disturbing.

The last stragglers walked past Papyrus sitting on his front steps, watching over the procession. He turned his phone over in his hands. He wouldn’t dare call Undyne again, not after the decision he made after she hung up on him.

This was his post. He couldn’t leave it. These people were only being temporarily displaced! And when the little human came through, well, they couldn’t push the monsters back forever! And there were only so many places to hide people, especially in such quantity!

If he could stop the human here…

Why were they doing this? Terrorizing, destroying, and for what? What did they gain? Surely not respect: you gain respect by being  _able to_ beat people up, not actually  _doing it_!! That was how Undyne did it, anyway.

Maybe that's how humans were taught. Or how they showed affection? Or maybe how they reacted in fear? That last one made the most sense to Papyrus. If he’d been tossed into a strange place, alone, afraid of all these new, different beings around him, he might think the only way was to fight as well! Makes perfect sense to a small scared creature.

Of course, what small scared creature would have left _so many_ piles? So many that the forest went quiet?

Could take out every one of the dogs…? Assuming that’s what happened, of course, and as it got later and later with no sign of them anywhere, Papyrus decided to face what had to be facts.

Still! They could be turned around. A little bit of rehabilitation never hurt anyone! All it could do is save countless others!

Maybe his puzzles were too intimidating for them. Maybe if he showed them something gentler. And then moved on to the puzzles.

Papyrus got off his step and wandered around Snowdin, looking for the last of the denizens. The town appeared to be sufficiently empty, and Papyrus made his way back to the town limits, next to Waterfall. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, watching the clock on his phone. Fifteen minutes until he was to meet up with Undyne. She’d be so cross, but then she’d see what he’d done and she wouldn’t help but be proud! He’d get his promotion for sure!

Then everyone would love him… he had that to look forward to, if nothing else.

Or even just knowing he could come home after basking in the glory and adoration, cook up some nice food...though that somehow got him thinking, he hadn’t heard from his brother in a few hours, either. Perhaps he’d been preoccupied with his job today...or whatever he was up to. He shot off a quick text message to Sans, just wondering what he’d been up to that day, since Sans disliked Papyrus showing too much concern, for some reason. As he connected the silence from Sans to the day’s events, he couldn’t help but feel a giant knot in his non-existent stomach: what if one of those piles was...?

He looked up from his phone to see a short walking shadow in an ever-thickening fog.

~~~

“HALT, HUMAN!” he called to the figure. It drew closer. “HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I'M TALKING TO YOU! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY.”

The small human emerged from the fog, not twenty feet between them. Papyrus held out a gloved hand to make them stop.

“FIRST: YOU'RE A FREAKING WEIRDO!” he shouted over a faint rattling sound. “NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES, BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE...THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER...IT FEELS LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH.”

The rattling grew faster as the human raised their eyes to meet Papyrus’s sockets. It took Papyrus another split second to realize it was him. What a face to present to the human, he’d have thought, had he not been so afraid. With a stutter, he went on. “H-HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!” His laugh was full of confidence, but he couldn’t keep the small tremor out of it.

He lowered his attack. He could get through to them if he wasn’t a threat. If they weren't afraid of him.

The little human took a step towards Papyrus. They held a gloved fist up to their core, with a bandanna tied around their head. The little knife they had in their hand earlier was sheathed in a belt loop.

“HEY, QUIT MOVING!” “THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT,” he said, disguising his growing sense of dread with volume. “WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS, WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!”

Three more steps. He raised his defense. Just...just in case. In turn, they raised their fist. And their eyes. The face looked so young but their eyes were dead and dark.

“I-I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. AR-ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE? W-WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!! I, PAPYRUS…”

He opened himself completely to the “enemy”. They took another step.

“WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!”

~~~

Papyrus wasn’t a flexible skeleton. His eyes had never before been on level with his toes.

His first turn was a check. The LV on this child was unbelievably high; surely there was a mistake. Then again, with all those dust piles, which _must’ve_ been monsters at one point earlier today...

“W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED…” Papyrus said, dazed, overwhelmed by the blow he’d just sustained, a bit mesmerized by the sight of his bones dissolving and his clothes falling into the snow. He felt his vision blur and with one of his last bits of strength he flicked his eyes upward to the human staring down at him. “BUT... ST... STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU!”

He would’ve sworn, given the chance, that a tear formed in the child’s eye. Maybe there was hope for them yet!

“YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER!”

They shut their eyes tight, trying to fight something off.

“EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO!”

The child raised their foot above his face.

“I... I PROMISE…”

He silently apologized. He wouldn’t be coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i fully admit to copy-pasting the dialogue toward the end from the wiki article and working around it (adding a couple stutters here and there, but not all of them): http://undertale.wikia.com/wiki/Papyrus/In_Battle
> 
> edit: i found the comic that inspired the final scene: http://ozumiiwizard.tumblr.com/post/135897438818/bladedee-gizmoryleigh-sushinfood


	3. The Heroine that Never Gives Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As long as there's something to fight for, she'll keep going. Her drive is legendary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is really really long.

“You know exactly who this is and you know exactly why I’m calling. When you get this, _call me back_.”

If Undyne was honest, she had no idea why she left that message in the first place. This was incredibly out of character for Papyrus: without fail, he _always_ picked up his phone within two rings. And if by some greater power he couldn’t, she definitely wouldn’t have needed to call back three times. Something was wrong.

“I swear to god, Pap, if you decided to play the hero…”

To her left stood a statue covered in rain. It had been silent for the longest time, but the little music box tune played in her head every time she came past it on her way home. It had been stuck in her memory ever since she could remember. She paced in front of it, hitting it lightly on the arm with each pass. It did nothing to calm her.

Everyone was ignoring her. Her seconds in command may be busy scrambling soldiers. She’d all but received confirmation that the Dogs were _not_ coming. Her last line of defense in Snowdin (however much she didn’t want make him a line at all) wasn’t responding now, either. She watched the time on her phone tick off another minute. She scrolled through her recent calls and dialed an older number (admittedly timestamped for just that morning, but Undyne had used her phone a lot that day).

While she waited for the phone to pick up, she reached into a small sack tied around her armor belt and fingered its contents, settling on the largest object in there: a large-capacity syringe filled completely with red liquid.

~~~

_“I-I didn’t develop that, I was working off old notes. Really hard-to-read notes, but I think I did ok.”_

_“What’s it do?”_

_“The old scientist called it ‘extracted determination’. I-I figured it would be -”_

_“Pssh. I can make this.”_

_“N-not like that you can’t! There’s loads of it, and it’s concentrated. Say what you want to about it, but even your body can’t -!”_

_“Don’t say stuff like that, Alphys, it sounds like a challenge. But what do you do with it?”_

_“Oh! Uh… … research, mostly. The old notes are really sparce, incomplete, hard-to-read… I’ve been finishing it, apparently they thought it had something to do with…?”_

_“With?”_

_“...Getting out.”_

_“Oh, like that whole ‘souls combined thing’?”_

_“Ex-exactly! Like if there were a way to get monsters to harness this substance -!”_

_“Does it work?”_

_“...”_

_“Al?”_

_“We...we’re not built like they are. It...probably wouldn’t be wise.”_

_~~~_

“H-hello?”

“Hey. It’s me.”

“Oh, Undyne! What’s, uh, what’s happening?”

“Well, I’m still alone down here, gonna go check out over by the bridges, you know the ones.” Undyne started walking as she spoke. “By the way, got a quick question for ya.”

“Y-yes?”

“When you said that thing came through the Ruins earlier.”

“Yeah?”

“ _Why didn’t you tell me what it was_?”

“W-what it was?”

“ _That was the human._ ”

“R-really?”

“Alphys.”

“I mean, it looked like one, but nothing else about it -”

“ _Alphys._ ”

“It had a striped shirt, Undyne, it’s a kid, it’s -”

“That _kid_ murdered its way through Snowdin and is making a beeline for Waterfall!”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t think it c-cou…”

Undyne hit her hand on her forehead and tried to breathe deeply. What was done was done and getting angry at Alphys would probably make things worse.

“Alphys, Alphys, chill out. Hey! Listen to me! Tears aren’t gonna help right now and I need you to work with me! How much of Hotland do you have under your control? Like the barriers and such?”

“I-I have a control panel -”

“Have people arrived at your lab yet? That’s where I’d had traffic directed.”

“HERE?”

“It’s the direct line to the capital.”

“I know, but -!”

“Al, they’re just people. They’re all scared, they won’t have it in them to judge anything about the place. They’re counting on you. So am I. Alright?”

“Th-the lab isn’t big enough for the entire population!”

“Trust me: the population’s gone down,” Undyne quipped inappropriately. “What about that door?”

“NO!”

Undyne blinked and stopped in her tracks. Alphys got defensive very easily, but to Undyne’s memory, never so violently.

“I-I mean! It...it really wouldn’t…”

“Alright, alright, just do what you have to. I’ll call you back in a bit, I have to check on some places.”

“...” _Click_.

~~~

"Some places" weren't necessary. One was all Undyne needed to check.

She came to a stop behind some pillars. A figure caught her eye, walking along one of the grated bridges parallel to her path. She stayed hidden in the shadows. The light from the previous area lit the thing enough that she could observe it. Her eye widened at the sight of it.

The terror of the Underground. The thing that destroyed an entire town and left like it was nothing. The beast of legend from the surface, come to do nothing but eradicate anything and everything it could get its hands on.

It was barely four feet tall and wore a blue striped shirt, along with a wide flat skirt around its waist. A pair of shoes dangled from their hand by ribbons. Surely this couldn’t be it. But it looked more like the history DVDs than anything else Undyne had seen Underground. Bipedal, a single patch of hair on top, and the striped shirt both Alphys and Papyrus said it was wearing. It had to be.

Shoot first, ask questions later. She was far enough away that she wouldn’t actually enter battle with the squirt, and that was to her advantage: she could throw whatever she had at the thing without it being able to fight back nearly as efficiently. Undyne conjured a spear from thin air.

“ _This ends HERE,_ ” she muttered under her breath. Any other time she would have thrown a warning shot. Just missing them. Giving them a fair chance. She had a code of honor to uphold, anyway. This spear in particular was aimed to kill. She wouldn’t miss. Not at the rate they were going, anyway. They’d walk right under it without a second to react.

Except they didn’t.

They stopped just short of it. It landed and dissipated less than a foot from the kid’s face.

She took a step forward in disbelief. She missed. She doesn’t miss. She _never_ misses. How did they know? _How did they know?!_

Her stepping into the dim light from the previous area alerted the child to her presence and they took off at a sprint down the grated bridge.

“ _Oh no, you don’t!_ ” She threw up her hands and summoned three spears. At a distance her accuracy was worse but perhaps in quantity she could manage to land a hit. A swipe of her gauntleted hand threw the sharp magic at the child. Who dodged. Three more: dodged. Three more: dodged. If the gap wasn’t so huge between them Undyne would’ve jumped onto the grates and just snapped the kid’s neck. Frustration only made her aim worse, and she knew it. Hot-headedness was one of her greatest strengths and her greatest weaknesses, even she had to admit that. Her spears became more and more erratic, until…

“Finally!” she yelled, as one hit the human right in the shoulder, splitting into a dozen smaller ones and attacking the very soul, assuming it had one at all. Nothing hit, the human went on, albeit at a marginally slower pace.

It continued, all the way to a peat path. The gap was narrower there, and if Undyne was to catch the little beast, she’d have to jump. She gave a running start and leapt, landing shakily on the grate. The kid kept running ahead of her to the next area, but it couldn’t have gotten far. She followed, the grate wobbling uncertainly beneath her feet.

Tall grass stood in her path. She advanced. She was taller than it, but just barely. Between her visor and the foliage she couldn’t see anything. She swiped her hand back and forth until she slapped something solid. Instantly her hand clenched around it and she lifted the runt to eye level.

That’s not a human.

A small yellow armless kid dangled from Undyne’s grip. Her hidden expression fell into unamusement and she set the kid back down.

Little terror must be miles away by now. She turned around and went the other way.

~~~

“Did you do it?” the small voice asked hopefully, yet quietly. There was incessant chatter in the background: she was hiding her phone call away from a multitude of townsfolk.

“Little shit got away from me. That close, Al. _That close._ ”

“Oh.”

“How the, uh, evacuation going?” Undyne asked, indicating the background noise best she could over the phone.

“It, uh...it went. It’s really crowded here. Please tell me you’re not going to evacuate Waterfall? I don’t have space.”

“I can’t make promises, Al. There’re piles here.”

“P-piles.”

“Yeah. You know what I’m talking about,” Undyne said grimly.

“I don’t - hang on!” Alphys moved away from the speaker and began conversing with an unintelligible, panicking voice. “Yes? What, you - your -? I-I’m on the phone with - with someone in the field -! Uh. Ok. Yes, ma’am, I under-. Alright, I’ll tell her. Hey,” Alphys said, readdressing the Captain, “if you, uh, happen to see a kid out there somewhere, can you direct them to the lab with the rest of town? I’ve got a worried mother and she’s breathing down my neck.”

“Kid? There’re kids in Waterfall, Al, be more specific.”

“Well, she’s yellow, kinda spiky.”

“Arms?”

“I’ll ask her.” Alphys turned away from the phone again. “She says no.”

“Tell her I saw a kid just like that a little while ago. Maybe ten minutes.”

“Weren’t you just -?”

“Oh, shit, you’re right. Look, kid was fine a bit ago, just tell her they’re fine. Listen, I have to get going,” Undyne said as her call waiting went off. “I’m getting another call, probably my second.”

“Oh...alright. No problem.”

“I’ll call you back in a bit. And, uh, Al?”

“Yes?”

“I…” The words caught in Undyne’s throat. “I...Remind me, later, I have something to tell you when I get done here.”

“O-ok!”

“Bye.” She hung up and took her other call, pacing the whole time.

“I realize you need more people up near the king. But we need people too! Entire areas are being wiped out, can you imagine the lashing we’ll get when he finds out we prioritized him above everyone else?!” Pause. “I know. If they can corrupt the Core, intentionally or otherwise -” She was mildly irritated at the interruption but allowed her subordinate to go on. “I understand, but you also need to understand you’re not calling every shot. Do not interrupt me again,” she said threateningly as the guardsman on the other end took a breath. “Your orders are to protect the laboratory in Hotland. I’ll make an announcement over the speaker system. Waterfall will be evacuated, instructed to get to the laboratory ASAP. What’s left of Snowdin is already holed up there. It’s not ideal but it’s efficient.” Another short pause. “I’ll be alright on my own, I needed soldiers to protect the occupants, not me.”

She didn’t get to be the Captain of the Guard for nothing. Call it confidence or arrogance, but she was damn certain of her abilities. And even so...she had a little helper on her person.

“Glad you’re clear. God speed.”

She retrieved the small syringe from her bag. Almost a deciliter… whatever that was. Why Alphys even had an instrument that huge, she didn’t know. But now was not the time to decide she was afraid of needles. She removed her gauntlets and placed the needle in her left arm. She squeezed, enough to take about a fifth of it, 20 milliliters. She felt it physically before she felt its effects. As soon as she removed the needle, she tossed it with a muscle spasm and fell to her knees, clutching at the injection site.

Alphys wasn’t kidding when she said this stuff was potent. Undyne had _never_ felt such an energy rush before in her life. Similar, definitely, but never so intense. Her eyes squeezed shut and it took all the concentration she had left not to let out a strangled yell.

It stabilized within two minutes. She was left with one hell of a buzz, but was able to stand. She picked up the syringe from the ground.

“What... _are you?_ ” And humans produced this en masse? What in hell was she up against?

If she felt invincible, nothing in the human’s path stood a chance.

~~~

There were a lot of people Undyne wished she’d told she loved them.

She mostly showed it through tough displays of aggressive caring. Reminding people of their own capacity to love was how she showed her own. But sometimes she really wished she could articulate herself, get the words out.

She’d missed her chance with Papyrus. She was sure he knew. She knew he loved her, anyway. Even when she hit him over the head with a ladle he took it with a big stupid grin on his face, smiling in the face of friendly fire. And he wondered why she wouldn’t let him enlist. She always valued his loyalty, his optimism. How he took his commitments seriously and how much of a commitment he thought she was...She was gonna miss the bony little dork, once she had finished the mission and could process it properly. Damn...she really didn’t want to deliver that news to the next of kin, either. It’d be too final. But passing it to a subordinate felt like a disservice, too.

With Alphys...heh. What had she been through in her life? What had she been up against? The same fearless warrior who looked both the king and a war hero straight in the eyes and demanded they fight her, couldn’t utter three small words to her best friend. She knew Alphys knew she loved her. Their marathons. their little talks in the upstairs lab, their walks through the dumps...she knew they were friends but it never felt like it sunk in on Alphys’ end somehow. What was Undyne afraid of there? Shame? Rejection? Change? She didn’t understand. But she promised her friend she’d come home. Maybe she could think up something else to tell her. Or maybe the drug coursing through her body would give her the boost she needed.

Asgore...well, how do you show your superior you love them outside of doing your job best you can in their name? But he wasn’t her superior. He was no one’s superior. A leader, but not a boss. He didn’t put himself above anyone. When she was a girl she used to wonder why that was, why a king wouldn’t exercise these types of privileges. Turns out, that was his way of showing love. Being on his subjects’ level, being accessible, taking interest in them. She never admitted it, but she admired him for that. She still exercised her authority over her troops, but also tried to emulate his interest in them when she interacted. Maybe she shouldn’t have snapped at 01 earlier, except this was a time for seriousness and tactics. She couldn’t afford to be soft today, even a little.

She’d been resting in an out of the way path, planning her next move. She had been gathering as many stragglers as she could find and pointing them to the labs.

An echo flower grew next to her, whispering something faintly. She put her head to it.

“Not another damned dead end. How do you navigate this place?”

She smirked at it. Visitors were funny. She sat back for a second before she got an idea. She leaned in close to the bloom and whispered “Behind you!” then stifled a giggle in the crook of her arm lest it pick that up.

Break was over. She felt better, stable, still high but able to control her limbs. Time to move on. There was a job to do.

~~~

Waterfall was a still area to begin with, but even with its small population and dankness there was always a familiarity to being there. Rushing water and the creepy echo flowers provided background noise, and the darkness meant even if she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, there was probably someone with her.

She’d never had a deeper sense of aloneness walking through there in her life. Glowing mushrooms lit her path and whispered to each other. They were afraid. They should be. Poor things can’t evacuate. One more reason to get rid of the little demon once and for all.

The area was spanned by grated bridges. They seemed to be everywhere: overhead, off to the sides, crisscross, too narrow for all but the smallest of Monsters to traverse and wide enough to hold entire town gatherings. The highway of the region, in a sense.

Undyne crossed on a section directly under a more complex network above. The only noise with her now were dull clangs of sabaton on metal floor (Impractical? Maybe. Badass? ABSOLUTELY.). Her footsteps started overlapping with each other.

No, wait...

The second set was duller, no metal shoes or feet to make the same sound. Moreover, when Undyne stopped to listen, they kept going, not echoes, but further steps. She looked up. There were few in the way of star rocks in the ceiling here, but by the faint glow what there were of them let out, she could see a small creature on two feet walking perpendicular to her route.

She’d aim to stun, just in case. She set a target just in front of the creature and shot. The magic spears emitted enough light to illuminate the shadowy figure. Sure enough, there it was. The enemy.

She shot bundle after bundle of spears up through the floor after the human. It ran around frantically, desperately trying to outrun her weapons. It was frightened, and it better be.

It met dead end after dead end, but never actually met _its_ dead end! Scrambling for an exit, it kept running into walls and nearly falling off edges. It was determined to survive, to continue. Well, Undyne was too.

It got close to the end. Undyne knew where it was headed; there was a small staircase against a nearby wall. Trusting her armor to absorb any blow she’d sustain against a solid object, she took off toward it, throwing more spears above her head as she went. She ascended the stairs, trying to beat them. They deposited her just behind them. She entered the next area and knew she had it cornered.

No wonder Alphys didn’t tell her it was a human. It didn’t feel like one. Undyne had seen plenty in those history books of the Doctor’s, and even more of them back in school, through old boring art. How they all were similar, they walked upright, they were proud creatures. They looked their enemies in the eye when they slayed them.

This little... _thing_ wasn’t recognizable as anything she’d seen before. She wondered if she could kill something that barely looked sentient.

_Could always put it down._

She raised her spear. The creature apparently could think, because it clenched its fist and raised it to their chest.

She threw it. The human dodged and ran at her. Her next attack was an entire barrage of magical spears. She threw them down where she thought the human would be a second later.

The kid stopped on a dime. Couldn’t save them though. The spears pierced the grated floor and severed it in two. There must’ve been a weak spot along the other side as it snapped under its weight and the human’s, and both fell to the garbage dumps below. The piece under Undyne started shaking as though it were going to follow suit and she hastily retreated. It wobbled long after she got off but ultimately stayed attached to the path. She thought briefly about marking it as a danger, but had nothing on her. But she knew where she could get something.

~~~

“So you -!”

“Shh, don’t get everyone’s hopes up over there,” Undyne instructed the excitable little lizard. “I’m going to check for a body. Not like I couldn’t have jumped after it, but, uh...you and I both know about the, er…”

“Y...yeah.”

“Yeah. So keep it quiet! I don’t know if I’m gonna find dust or something else -”

“Y-you should just find the body as is! Humans don’t, er, decompose as quickly or efficiently as we do.”

“So whatever they looked like when they dropped, that’s what I’m looking for? Easy enough. Easier to tell a victim from that thing.”

“I suppose.”

“Yeah. So, that bridge is out… I’m going to an old friend’s place quick, see if I can get something to tape it off with, he’s got a bunch for sale.”

“If he’s still alive, he should be here!”

“Let me tell you something: if there’s something that old hardshell isn’t, it’s afraid of death. This guy’s a badass. So cool.” Undyne cut herself short; she couldn’t afford to rave like that all day. “He’ll be where I think he is, trust me.”

“O...okay. Oh, hey! Real quick before you go!”

Undyne came to a stop outside of her destination. “What?”

“Uh...you were down in my labs, right? With that stuff I told you not to touch?”

“Yeah?”

“How much did you take, because I know you took some.”

“Well…” Undyne rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “What’s a ‘deciliter’?”

“Oh, _Undyne_ ,” Alphys groaned, “don’t tell me you’re planning on taking it all!”

“Of course I’m not planning on taking it all! ...At once. Look, I don’t know how much boost I’m going to need, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t run out!”

“ _An entire deciliter, though?_ ” Undyne could hear the facepalm. “And what’s worse, I’m missing at least three times that!”

“I have what I told you. No more, no less.”

“Just...please be careful with it.”

“I am. I’ll only use what I need to save the Underground from the abomination!”

“Remember what I said about the l-lack of research…?”

“I know, I know, you don’t like live testing. But what other option do I have? I’m alone down here. I can’t take the chance that I won’t be enough.” She wanted to add how her life was worth sacrificing if it meant she could do her job, protect her people. But that might make it worse. Alphys was expecting Undyne to come back. Most everyone was.

She kind of hoped she would, too.

“Anyway, I’m at the place. Gonna stop off here, quick, then head to the dump. I’ll call you back with whatever news I have.” She hung up and poked her head in the small recess.

~~~

“Back again -? Oh, it’s you!” an old voice said.

“Hi,” Undyne said, removing her helmet and smiling broadly at the old turtle.

“So, what brings the head of the Guard to my humble little shop?”

“You’re on the way.”

“Looking for that kid?” Gerson asked her, a bite to his voice.

“In a sense. Sent them falling to their death, hopefully.”

“The bloodlust is strong with this one,” Gerson teased her, glaring at the entrance. “Watching for you. Those suckers are resilient. and don’t fight fair.”

“I noticed. They see my every move before I make it, it seems. I don’t get it.”

Gerson blinked at her. “Neither do I. Never heard of that.” He laughed. “Why I keep going! Still learning new things after all this time!”

“Anyway, I was hoping for a couple of things. You got tape of any kind? I broke a bridge trying to neutralize the human. Hoping to rope it off.”

“I have tea.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Ok,” Undyne said with a clenched jaw. “Other thing: was wondering how much of your experience you had unrusted?”

“Listen here: I’m not up for fighting. I’d love to show the thing dusting its way through the Underground what for but I think I’ll leave that up to the soldiers. You kids don’t get paid for nothing!” He let out a hardy guffaw, and even Undyne cracked a small chuckle at that.

“You’re right. But you also know it’s more than that.”

“Of course it is. Now, I’ll do what I can for you as far as stalling.”

“No, Gerson, I think it’d be better if -”

“Don’t tell me what I will and won’t do, missy!” Been a long time since he’d called her _that_. “Kid’s already discovered they can’t hurt me, anyway.”

“Showed ‘em that old Hammer of Justice, huh?” So he _was_ out of practice. It _should’ve_ killed the kid. And by now he’d have said if he killed it.

“Nah! Game mechanics won’t let ‘em!” He laughed heartily. Undyne stared blankly at him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ll find some rope in the dump, I’m sure. And I’ll manage on my own.”

“You have an entire regiment, though?”

“They’re where they need to be. I’m where I need to be. I’ll be fine.” She gave him a quick smile before replacing her helmet and leaving the shop. A “Goodbye” caught in her throat.

_“I WON’T LET YOU SAY ‘GOODBYE’ TO ME! TOO MUCH FINALITY.”_

_“How about ‘See you later’? That work for you?”_

_“IT’S PERFECT!”_

“See you around, Gerson.”

She’d come see him when she was triumphant.

~~~

She knew Waterfall like the back of her hand. The severed bridge would’ve fallen right over that patch of flowers. There wasn’t really an edge for anything to fall over; it should still be like the flowers. Undyne scoured the shallow pool, looking for signs of the puny human. She found none.

Loads of people scavenged in the dumps. Don’t know what one would have to do with a undusted human. Maybe just wanting to be the ones to collect the soul and deliver it to Asgore.

She wasn’t satisfied, though. She still wasn’t convinced the little beast would go down so easily. If she were, she wouldn’t have checked on it in the first place. That substance made her feel absolutely invincible, like she wouldn’t get beaten down like that either. That kid must be pumped full of it.

She stood on a mound of garbage and fished around for her enhancement. She eyed the thing. Eighty milliliters of the red substance caught the faint light from the walls. Far too much, if she’d ask Alphys. And in any other circumstances, she’d never think about it. The amount she made herself was plenty for her day to day encounters. But she had everything to lose at that moment. She’d already lost so many. She would be damned if she were to lose anyone else.

Forty should be plenty. She shot the substance up, probably going over what she meant to as the liquid hit her soul. The dilution of her lifestream made her go lightheaded and she fell over into the water. She gasped in pain as she clawed her way back up the pile. She drew sharp breaths and kicked around to find her footing. She couldn’t see straight, objects in her direct line of sight started doubling.

She’d made an error. What was more, she dropped the syringe, so she couldn’t even know how big of a mistake she made.

She didn’t want to wait for her vision to correct itself before moving forward. She replaced her gauntlets and rummaged around in the trash mountains for rope. She found a VHS and took it with her, planning on smashing it open and using the ribbon as a road block.

~~~

The job was done. She only wished she could’ve labelled it. But a roped-off section of road should be straightforward enough for most people. And if not, well...a few more added to the mass funeral wouldn’t hurt. Much.

Yes it would, who was she kidding.

It wasn’t something she’d have a hand in. She didn’t do much of the feely type of stuff. She was bad at it. She’d deliver that news, only because he was her friend and she owed that to him. But that was all. And she’d attend whatever type of thing that’d be organized for this tragedy. Thinking about it carried her halfway through Waterfall. Lost in only her thoughts and surrounded by silence. She might move after this.

She waded through marsh. Echo flowers around her went silent. One could hear a pin drop. Or small feet, just ahead. Quietly (so slowly), Undyne followed the sound. She approached a room just in time to see that blue striped shirt disappear into the next area.

So it _was_ alive! She followed it down a small corridor, ending in a dead end, occupied only by a single echo flower. Undyne recognized it. This couldn’t be more perfect.

“B e h i n d y o u.” It uttered. The human spun around to face the Captain. It was trapped. Surely the ominous message chilled it to the very core. She smirked at her prey. End of the line.

“Seven.” She finally spoke directly to it. It gave no indication it recognized her presence. “Seven human souls. With the power of seven human souls, our king, King Asgore Dreemurr, will become a god.” She felt like she’d delivered this speech before. Rehearsed it, yes. Delivered it, she shouldn’t have.

“With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take the surface back from humanity. And give them back the suffering and pain we have endured.” _At their hand as a whole,_ **_and_ ** _at yours personally_.

“Understand, human?” Its expression didn’t indicate one way or another whether or not it understood. “This is your only chance at redemption.” _What little redemption you can get_.

“Give up your soul or I’ll tear it from your body.”

It gave no answer. It stood completely and totally still, like a doll after playtime. Well. Not like she didn’t warn them. She conjured a spear and aimed it at them. _Final warning, you little demon_. Nothing.

She charged.

It was over.

“Undyne! I’ll help you fight!”

 _Not again!_ The little yellow armless kid jumped out of nowhere. Undyne skidded to a halt less than a foot away from them. They turned excitedly from Undyne to the human and back, several times, in fact.

“Yo! You did it! Undyne is right in front of you!” Kid was pretty chummy with the abomination, huh? “You’ve got front row seats to her fight!”

The child continued hyperly turning their head and wiggling with excitement. Until something seemed to dawn on them. Their huge smile fell slightly as they came to a stop.

“Wait,” they said, clearly confused. “Who’s she fighting?”

Undyne let her spear dissolve and grabbed the kid by the side of the head. She dragged them away even as they protested.

“H-hey! You aren’t gonna tell my parents about this are you?”

~~~

She set the kid down two areas over. They looked up at her with huge eyes.

“Yoooo, this is so cool! You’re gonna go kick a bad guy’s butt, right! That’s what you do! You...Can I -!”

She knelt and put a gauntlet on the child’s...shoulder. “Listen to me. Do you know where the labs in Hotland are?”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“Go there.”

“What??? Why?” they whined.

“Because your mom’s worried about you. How did you even -?”

_How’d this kid even escape the evacuation? Especially both of them? How long had they been following me? The human? Tell me they weren’t following the human._

“Grown-ups always worry about dumb stuff. They don’t get it! We didn’t have to leave home! You’re here! You...you’re gonna -!” They cut off as she stood, towering over the kid.

“Sometimes grown-ups worries are for good reason. We’ve been around longer. We’ve seen stuff you haven’t yet. Go to the labs.”

“C-can I ask you something else, though?”

“If you promise you’ll go right after.” The kid nodded enthusiastically. “Shoot.”

“Who _are_ you fighting?”

“Did you see the short two-legger with the striped shirt?”

“Yeah, they’re - wait, what?” The kid’s look of reverence turned quickly to horror. “B-but, a kid -!”

“That’s no ordinary kid. That’s a human.” _At least I think it used to be_. “It’s been...not so nice to us down here. It needs to be dealt with so you can all go home, ok?”

“B-but…! We...they were...what?”

“Hey. I answered your question. Now, get going. Remember where I told you?” They nodded slowly, the same look of horror on their face. Undyne put a hand on their back and scooted them off down a side path. She turned back around to the spot she left the human.

They were gone. How they got out without her noticing, she had no idea. She threw a spear to the ground in utter frustration.

“Damn you!” she yelled. She tried to shake her head clear of the angry fog. Getting in a twist wasn’t going to help anything. She kept on, head down. She felt a headache coming on; perfect timing, she supposed. Sweat dripped down her face and she removed her helmet as she crossed into a new room.

There was a voice just ahead of her. Not a familiar one, but one she’d just heard. Too clear to be an echo flower.

“Yo...why won’t you answer me? And what’s with that weird expression…?”

Her heart skipped a beat. That kid. Couldn’t have kept on the path she’d set them on! She found herself hindered by marsh but pushed through the reedy water best she could, fast as she could.

“Y-yo. You’d better stop right where you are!” She heard the kid stammer out. “‘Cause, if you wanna hurt anyone else, you’re…”

 _Kid, stop it! Don’t play the hero! I won’t lose another that way today!_ She silently implored, dragging her waterlogged armor out of the marsh and getting to the next area fast as possible.

”You’re gonna have to get through me first!”

~~~

Undyne operated under two codes of honor. One for fair fighting. The other for protecting innocents. Initially she thought they would conflict here, but the fight before her was anything but fair.

The two children stood before her, clearly locked in combat. If it could even be called that. The armless kid had nerves of steel, she had to hand it to them, but they’d also clearly bitten off more than they could chew. Undyne couldn’t see their face, but she saw their back spikes quiver as the human surveyed them, an unreadable expression hidden under bangs.

The human raised their arm off to the side. They held the shoes by the ribbon, dangling from their hand. They started spinning their wrist slowly, building momentum in the shoes, until they were flying wildly like nunchucks. They flung their arm at the child.

They never hit their mark.

“U-Undyne!”

A small child...armed with _shoes_ ...did _that much damage???_

They managed to land a direct hit on Undyne’s soul; maybe they had some kind of soul-seeking power, or maybe those shoes were something else entirely. They had a really heavy thing in the toes...and looked so dainty, like they couldn’t do anything to anyone...Though, someone with that much killing intent…

Undyne looked down to assess the damage. Her armor had been compromised; she felt her body split in twain. She looked at the child behind her. They looked horrified at what just happened.

“Undyne... You're... You're hurt…”

“Hurt? It's nothing,” she said with a cocky grin, quickly putting her attention back on the enemy. “Next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay?” she said, gently as she could manage while in physical agony.

“Undyne... I…” They looked extremely guilty.

“I'll take care of this! Get out of here!” The child hesitated but followed orders. Undyne wasn’t entirely sure how they were going to get to the lab from there. Maybe they’d head back to Snowdin. That was a viable solution: the threat was here.

“Heh...‘It's nothing’...” Her armor creaked as the two new halves of her body started sliding. Parts of her pulled on each other like taffy. She placed a hand to the wound. “No... s-somehow, with just one hit…I'm already...Already...D... damn it....”

“Papyrus... Alphys... Asgore…” Each face swam before her blurring vision, each guilting her more than the last. “Just like that, I...I've failed you.”

Any second her soul would crack, and that would be the end of the Captain of the Royal Guard.

But she refused.

“No…My body... It feels like it's splitting apart. Like any instant... I'll scatter into a million pieces. But… Deep, deep in my soul. There's a burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that WON'T let me die.”

She felt it before, in times of her most intense challenges, that drive, that energy, that DETERMINATION...

“This isn't just about monsters anymore, is it? If you get past me, you'll… You'll destroy them all, won't you? Monsters... Humans... Everyone… Everyone's hopes. Everyone's dreams. Vanquished in an instant.”

The last dose coursed through her veins. That rush, a thousand times or more stronger than anything she’d ever felt before...

She grinned gill-to-gill.

“But I WON'T let you do that.”

The concentrated elixir tugged on every particle, tying it back together. Her own drive, her own goals, her own will spoke to it. She shut her eyes as they worked together to mend her body and armor.

“Right now, everyone in the world...I can feel their hearts beating as one.”

She reached up and pulled back her eyepatch.

“And we all have ONE goal. To defeat YOU.”

She cracked her good eye open. They were still locked in combat with her and hadn’t moved a muscle since she started talking.

“Human. No, WHATEVER you are. For the sake of the whole world…”

Locked in combat with this... _thing_...before her...she may have been intimidated once before, but that was a different her.

Resurrected on the spot, the undying heroine appeared.

“I, UNDYNE, will strike you down!”

The little human, eyes still unseen, gritted their teeth and jumped at her trunk. The shoes made contact but barely left a dent. She scoffed at the child’s lame attempt.

“You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT!”

For Papyrus, for Dr. Alphys, for King Asgore, for the entire Underground…

 _This ends_ **_HERE_ ** _!_

~~~

It didn’t feel entirely stable but _damn_ it felt powerful! She didn’t need it to last long, anyway. Just long enough to defeat the threat.

 _What a morbid thought_ , she let cross her mind briefly. Even as a soldier, shouldn’t she fear her own mortality? A little?

But she’d make it last. She had promises to keep and people to keep living for.

The kid was good, Undyne had to hand it to them. A little _too_ good, though. It was almost as though they could see her moves before she made them. Like they’d done this before.

 _Alright then, dodge THIS!_ Spears spun in circles and zeroed in on the human’s soul. Would a direct hit kill it? Destroy it? Human souls were reportedly tough but they couldn’t be indestructible. It didn’t matter, she decided almost immediately. This was bigger than the barrier. This was everyone’s lives at stake.

More sweat fell down her forehead the more she exerted herself. Put the little demon in green mode, throw from all angles. The child spun like a tornado. It kept the kid occupied long enough for Undyne to wipe her brow. The sweat was heavy. And thick. And flesh toned.

Even the child paused their turn to watch Undyne’s horror-stricken face as she realized the sweat was actually her scales turning to liquid. She stared at the substance on her glove. She looked up at the human and put her hand down.

 _Tsk. Better make this quick then, huh?_ She nodded her head back tauntingly and the human obliged, delivering another blow with their ribbon shoes.

The more she exerted herself, the harder she fought, the faster it seemed like she melted. It became less runny, tackier, like it wanted to stay together but couldn’t bind properly to solid matter. She didn’t have time to be scared of this. The kid was expertly dodging almost every single move Undyne made. Her concentration _had to be_ in the fight.

Even after she felt the last bits of her health drain, she kept going. The steroid wouldn’t let her stop until she’d finished the job. Or was it her own will keeping her alive? She didn't know and it didn't matter. What mattered was she was still in this to win. She threw another set of circling spears at the kid and waited for another hit. She couldn’t move. All she could do was take it and try her damnedest to give it right back.

She had no other choice.

~~~

The high from a good dose of determination was something. The crash afterward was something else entirely.

The taffy that was her body could only hold itself together for so long, apparently. Undyne didn’t know if it was the exertion what did her in, or if it was the wounds to her soul, or if it was inevitable. Her own determination which drove her to overdose...

“Damn it... So even THAT power... It wasn't enough...?”

The first time she was fatally hit, she felt herself turn to powder. This time, it just felt like goo. Really runny goo. Even her armor, which she’d manipulated during her resurrection, started turning to goo.

“Heh…” Not many people get to marvel at dying two very separate ways. “Heheheh…” She couldn’t help it. She wasn’t scared. She had enough of that drug in her yet to prevent that. But even as she was forced by way of literally melting into a puddle to concede the battle, she knew the war was just beginning. She wasn’t going to give that thing in front of her the satisfaction of groveling to her grave.

“If you…” she said, holding her upper half up by leaning on her spear, arms shaking. If you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong. Cause I've... Got my friends behind me.”

The demon child’s expression remained unreadable. Undyne wasn’t even certain they were looking at her as she spoke to them.

“Alphys told me that she would watch me fight you…” Her soul gave a weak _thump_ when she thought of that. The poor lizard had to watch this all go down. She...surely she’d be strong enough to finish the job after this?

 _Tears aren’t gonna help right now and I need you to work with me!_ Goes for her too. She trusted Alphys as much as her second. She trusted her. She loved her. She believed in her.

“And if anything went wrong, she would...evacuate everyone. By now she's called Asgore and told him to absorb the 6 human Souls.”

Undyne’s arms gave out and she started sinking faster into the pile of goop that was her legs. Her throat collapsed and breathing became impossible.  
And with that power…” she gasped out, “This world will live on...!”

The child smirked as her soul finally gave in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more direct thievery of canon dialogue.
> 
> also, the rest of the chapters shouldn't be nearly so long, my god. typed it up in drive, single spaced, came out to about 14 pages. congratulations.
> 
> and, new chapter won't be out until definitely after the weekend; small family crisis plus school paper i haven't even looked at makes for i shouldn't write fic.


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